City Clerk Denise De Costa personally called the state Office of Elections before the filing deadline on July 22 to inform them that state House Majority Leader Kirk Caldwell was withdrawing from his House re-election campaign to run for an open City Council seat.

The call, while Caldwell was at the clerk's office, led the elections office to post on its Web site that night that Caldwell had withdrawn. But the state's chief elections officer, Kevin Cronin, said the posting was a mistake and that the elections office did not officially record Caldwell's withdrawal until it was received in writing the next day.

The timing could be crucial in determining whether Caldwell properly withdrew and completed his paperwork to run for City Council. State law does not allow candidates to file for different political offices at the same time. There is also a question of whether Caldwell had enough signatures from registered voters by the deadline to qualify for the council race.

The city clerk could rule on Caldwell's status today.

The latest account of Caldwell's filing — the most detailed yet — comes from a preliminary decision by Cronin denying a Republican challenge to Caldwell's eventual replacement as a House candidate.

Cronin ruled that the Democratic Party of Hawai'i properly replaced Caldwell with Isaac Choy, a Manoa accountant, within the 72 hours allowed under the law to fill a vacancy after the filing deadline. The elections office had rejected Chrystn Eads, an aide to Mayor Mufi Hannemann, as a House candidate because she did not complete her paperwork by the deadline.

Cronin said in his ruling that the elections office was under the impression Caldwell would bring his withdrawal letter to the office on July 22. Caldwell faxed his letter — dated July 22 — to the office the next day and then had the original delivered.

"I was assured that it was as official as you could make it," Caldwell said of having the city clerk call the elections office with the withdrawal.

The state Elections Commission, meanwhile, expressed confidence yesterday in Cronin after public criticism of his handling of the candidate filing challenges, his failure to register to vote until last week, and his decision to print primary ballots without showing them to the political parties.

"You know something, I think Kevin is doing one fantastic job," William Marston, the commission's chairman, told reporters. "And, I can't speak for all of the commission, but the commission feels that somebody has put a target on his back and has unfairly gone after him."

Marston said after the commission met in executive session yesterday that there would be no comment on any pending legal matters. But he said the commission had accepted Cronin's apology for not registering to vote until last Friday. State law requires that the chief elections officer be a registered voter.

The leaders of both major political parties complained yesterday after learning that Cronin had authorized the printing of primary ballots without first showing them to the parties. State law allows the parties to review the ballots before printing, so party leaders can correct any mistakes.

Cronin said the ballots needed to go to the printer to meet the August deadline to distribute ballots to absentee voters and to military personnel and others eligible to vote in Hawai'i but living abroad. He said there are procedures under the law if ballots have to be changed or voters notified because candidates are disqualified.

"Hopefully, all the ballots will be correct when they go out," Cronin told reporters.

Florence Kong Kee, the political director of the Democratic Party of Hawai'i, said she was disappointed. "I think we should have had the opportunity to take a look at those ballots and approve the ballots before they were printed," she said.

Willes Lee, the state GOP chairman, called it a "huge mistake" given the challenges that are pending. "For us, for the public, this points to an issue of having ballots printed before the challenges are resolved. It just looks like too much going on behind the scenes that the public ought to know about," he said.

State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), who had interrupted the commission meeting to ask about ballot printing, told reporters afterward that Cronin should be fired. He called Cronin's actions over the past week "indefensible."

"This guy has got to go, really," he said.